On Dentistry’s Future

Imagine a corporate dental practice model with a size and a business model which is unique – and unstoppable.

A vertically integrated model which will likely own thousands of dental practices and manage tens of thousands of patient calls a day through a call center. Additionally, imagine them building mega-multi specialty state-of-the-art clinics around the country which they will then fill with both dentists and patients.

Imagine them designing their own proprietary software to coordinate all activity, and them importing and making their own supplies and equipment in China and elsewhere. Imagine a clinic in Dubai and elsewhere, and imagine all of it being done debt-free with investment dollars flowing from overseas.

A complete fantasy and not in my lifetime you say? The picture here is that of an existing Ortho department in one of these mega clinics about ready to open right here in the U.S..

The floor? Custom marble imported from their own company in China. The light fixtures? Patented and made by their own company. The dental equipment? Ditto.

This is no fantasy. This is the future of dentistry. And everyone practicing today needs to be looking over the hill and strategically planning for how they will fit into it, or planning how they will be leaving it, because there is no one who will be able to compete AGAINST what I have just described.

In the 1980’s Avrom King told us that the market would differentiate into three tiers, and that only the top tier -Tier III would remain as a viable independent business model. It represents relationship-based / health-centered care, and it can’t be imported from China.

So, it turns out that Avrom was spot-on in his projections.

What do you plan to do about it?

Paul A Henny, DDS

Thought Experiments LLC, ©2016